Obesity should be renamed to tackle misconceptions about the disease, an expert in the condition has said. 

Dr Margaret Steele works as a researcher at UCC's School of Public Health  and hops to provoke a discussion among doctors, patients and other members of the public about the use of language.

“It’s not up to me, or any kind of researcher, to say, ‘Here’s how the general public should use language,’” she told The Pat Kenny Show.

“People use the language they use.

“But I do think that it would be good to come up with a term that emphasises the underlying pathology - rather than body size - because this confusion with body size doesn’t help.

“It feeds into this idea that it’s a choice that people are making.

“One possibility that has been raised is ‘adiposity-based chronic disease’.”

2B8CW6W Weight loss and diet concept. Lady standing on scale. Woman weighing herself. Fitness lady dieting. Weightloss and dietetics. Dark late night mood.

Dr Steele said she hoped a new term would help “clear up a little of that confusion” about the disease, which she said is still stigmatised.

“The reason that it is stigmatised is partly because of a lack of public understanding of the disease of obesity,” she said.

“Separately to that but connected, there’s also a massive amount of stigma around body weight and body size that predates the understanding of obesity as a disease.”

Genetics

Dr Steele noted many people can “easily” maintain a healthy body weight but it was important to recognise that, for others, it is a huge struggle.

“Trying to stay on a very rigid, low-calorie diet where your body is actually starving, where your body is telling you that you are in starvation mode - because you are - that’s extremely difficult to maintain,” she said.

“For people with a genetic disposition to the disease of obesity, it’s not just that they’re at a higher weight, it’s that their body is continuously giving queues that causes them to gain weight… It’s not a matter of self-control.”

According to the HSE, 60% of adults in Ireland and one in five children are overweight or obese.

Main image: Weighing scales.